Tim Leunig, the economist who suggested leaving ‘failed’ cities to rot, is back, and he has schools in his sights

Tony Blair urged his aides to “think the unthinkable”. When Tim Leunig, reader
in economic history at the London School of Economics, did just that, David
Cameron, then the leader of the opposition, said he couldn’t wait to be rid
of him.

Leunig — who until last week was chief economist at the CentreForum think tank
— published a report four years ago saying the attempt to regenerate cities
such as Liverpool, Bradford and Hull had failed and that residents should be
given the opportunity to leave. The money put into investment programmes
would be better spent on expanding cities such as Oxford and London, where
people wanted to live and work and companies wanted to be situated — and if
northern cities shrank and stagnated as a result, so be it.

The idea caused outrage. Cameron (who had mistakenly been told that Leunig was
about to emigrate) said: “I hear he is